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Sunday, April 30, 2006

The Duke and I have been married for 5 years, can you believe it? Here's what we did to celebrate

Day 1- First order of business, change car battery which died as we boarded the ferry - much thanks to the lady who saved us with a jump!- Lunch at Barb's on the warf. . . best fish and chips in Victoria - we don't know exactly what haddock is, but we like it.

- Beehive Wool - http://www.beehivewool.com/index.htm - You will see from their website that they have a lot of acrylic yarns, which was suprising, but to my great delight, they had more fleece artist yarns than I have ever seen in one location. Here is what I got. Ok, so you can't see the colors in this at all, but it is an oh so lovely colorway of deep reds, purples, and golds. It is from fleece artist and it is a superwash merino in sock weight. It is just too nice for socks (pardon requested of my faithful sock knitting friends.) It will be combined with a nice color of kid silk haze and knit into something lace.

-Checked into our B&B, The Ashcroft Househttp://www.ashcrofthousebandb.com/index.htmWe stayed in the Cotswold room, and after getting up at 4:00 am, the amazingly comforatable bed called to us and we took a nice nap- Dinner at the Flying Begal Pub - it was ok for pub food. I had a BLAT (BLT with Avacado) and pesto mayo and Link had a Toad in a Hole . . . the only thing you need to know is don't bother ordering it.-EVITA - put on by the Victoria Operatic Society at the McPherson Playhouse. It was opening night and we just happend to stumble upon the theater and buy some of the last tickets. It was stunning with one very unfortunate exception, the orchestra was too loud. The Duke, having never heard Evita, had a hard time understanding the singers sometimes.

Day 2-Breakfast- to die for (see B&B link above)-The Royal BC Museum - http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/We really liked thier century of change exibit, but this was hands down the coolest. If you click on the photo you will see the sign in the lower right corner reads "John Lennon's Yellow Submarine." It was sitting in the lobby of the museum.-The Bug Zoo-http://www.bugzoo.bc.ca/This might seem a little strange, but we LOVED this! It was so facinating and unusual. Here are a few pictures to creep you out

A milipede on the Duke's Face

A giant scorpion in my hand

A tarantuala taking a nap on meIsn't she beautiful? - her name is Emma

Oh, and yes, they are all very much alive.

- Muffins and Tea at Murchies (we were in Victoria after all)-A little window shopping and the purchase of our traditional piece of local art, which is also our anniversary present to each other this year. It is a small box that fits inside of the larger box, that is the larger peice of irregular wood. The smaller box was carved out of the inside of the bigger box. It is carved out of old growth Big Leaf Maple that was cut down by loggers on Vancouver Island, this part was discarded by the loggers because it is irregular. Jason, the artist recovers these peices (they had a name, but I can't remeber) and creates some of the most beautiful peices.- Dinner at Danieli's - Italian - phenominal - order the chocolate almond pate for dessert - trust me.

Day 3-breakfast - yum again- ferry- stop in Mt. Vernon on the way home to see the ALPACS!!! They are SO CUTE I want one or two or three!!! There is a little shop there where they sell thier raw fiber and yarn, and on the yarn band it says the names of which aplacas 'conntributed' the yarn! Isn't that fun! It was Sunday so I didn't buy anything, but I can't wait to go back!

Sunday, April 16, 2006

I really just wanted to see the Easter sunrise (ya just keep telling yourself that through church so you can stay awake.)

So what does one do while they are waiting for the sun to rise on Easter Morning?

Take pictures of her finished Easter Egg Basket of Course.

BTW - Easter Egg hunts aren't near as fun with dogs and husbands as they are with kids. We did ours last night as a reward for Duke who spent the entire day studying. I don't know how much of a reward it was. . . but hey, it's Easter. Maggie found one of the two doggie Easter treats very quickly and just as quickly Logan stole it from her. After she chased after him and then ran back to us to complain we helped her find the other one. They are very funny!

So no pre-felting pictures of my basket, I was too excited to get it in the washing machine. I learned an important felting lesson too, don't try to felt with towles that are all ready wet from felting something else. They MUST be dry and not smooshed up against the walls of the washer. Go figure. I had to felt it twice.

Isn't the ruffle fun!

So, Jennifer, my boss, really liked them so we are turning them into Mother's Day and Father's Day baskets and the pattern will be available as soon as I knit more samples and write it at Hilltop Yarn. www.hilltopyarn.com

Here are the two happy baskets together!

HAPPY EASTER

And just because I know you were wondering (or at least would have if you had thought about it). . . What DO Mormons do with crystal wine goblets?

Monday, April 10, 2006

So fellow Hilltopper, Cranky (who, buy the way I have never actually seen be cranky -- probably because the only place I ever see her is in a bar or a yarn shop) put up a meme on her blog and said she would like to see what others of us had to say. . . the first thing I said was "what is a meme?"

Wikipedia here I come

The term "meme" (IPA: [miːm]) refers to any unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea or concept, which one mind transmits (verbally or by repeated action) to another mind. Examples might include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods in addition to concepts such as race. Different definitions of meme generally agree, very roughly, that a meme consists of some sort of a self-propagating unit of cultural evolution having a resemblance to the gene (the unit of genetics).

OK, clear as mud and here is my first meme

1. Five minutes to yourself: how would you spend them, ideally?Alone, on the Oregon coast, walking barefoot on the beach on a warm, but not too warm, summer morning, listening to the gulls, breathing deeply, and contemplating how fragile and insignificant the ocean makes me feel.

2. Five bucks to spend right now: how would you spend it?hummm, I didn't think this one would be that hard. . . normally I would answer something along the lines of a Jamba Juice or something sweet, but I just ate a huge dinner and that isn't so appealing right now, but you know I could really use a new pair of black socks. So, black socks it is.

3. Five items in your house you could part with, right now, that you hadn't thought of already?My pasta maker, several pairs of shoes, the wire tea pot and shoe sculptures, a mexican style chip or vegitable and salsa or dip plate combo, my TV (technically I guess I'v all ready thought of this over, and over and over, but the Duke won't let me)

4. Five items you absolutely, positively could never part with in your house?My scriptures from my mission, my wedding ring, my grandfather's journals, my Tagolog to English and English to Tagolog dictionaries (too hard to find), my knitting

5. Five words you love?

Dow (a Tagolog word that removes responsibility for what you are saying), Serendipity, Ranunculus, Magaan (another Tagolog word which describes a light, as in not heavy, object or feeling - and sounds a lot like my name!), Harmony

Ok, so if your interested Vellumblue http://vellumblue.livejournal.com/ has also added to the meme. I would be interested in anyone else's cultural repetition (?????) so leave your thoughts as a comment or a link to your thoughts as a comment

So, every six months our church holds what we call a General Conference and I love General conference for so many reasons. So it starts on Sat. with the first session at 9:00 pst and the second session at 1:00 pst, each session lasting two hours. Then men of the church then have a third session that evening. Conference continues the next day with two more sessions, morning and afternoon, like the day before.

Now why, one might ask, would any person (let alone the millions - yes millions who participate) want to go to church for a total of 8 hours in one weekend if your a woman or 10 hours if your a man. Well, let me tell you.

1. Due to the miracle of the internet I get to go to church in my PJ's at home. I plug in my laptop, go to the Church's website, and listen to a live stream of the Conference. While this might seem a little strange, and I wouldn't want to do it all the time, it's great every six months.

2. I get to knit during the sessions. That is 8 hours of guilt free knitting. EIGHT HOURS

3. The most important reason: I have the opportunity to stop dead in the tracks of my very busy life and listen to the most spiritual, loving, and inspired men and women in the world speak on the most sacred of topics for eight hours. I am given opportunity to listen to some of the most gifted voices in the world sing praises to the King of Kings. I am priveledged to be able to participate in something global, something transcendent, something powerful.

It is a glorious weekend and I am uplifted and renewed in so many ways by the experience every six months. That is a precious gift. Sounds nice, no? Well, the audio stream is available at the above website if you are interested in a taste, help yourself.

Now, all you knitters want to know, I know you do, what did I knit in eight + hours this weekend. Well, I usually have a specific project that I pick out just for conference, and this time, with a little inspiration from my Tues. night knitting partner, I chose something very fun and challenging. I tried my hand at knitting and crocheting with wire.

Ok, I have now tried three times to add the photos, and blogger isn't working rights, so you will just have to wait, sorry, but it's good to develop patience, right!

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Please respect my work and my creativity, including my words, my photographs, and my patterns. If you would like to use any of these things for a particular purpose, please email me at yarnation at gmail dot com.